1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to improvements in electronic flashlight apparatus and more particularly, but not by way of limitation, to electronic flashlight apparatus employing a storage capacitor and an auxiliary capacitor having small capacitance as compared to the storage capacitor.
2. Description of the Prior Art
One well known form of electronic flashlight apparatus is disclosed in Federal Republic of Germany Patent Specification No. 2,110,752. It is an object of this prior art apparatus to make the energy of a single flash variable by varying the voltage across a storage capacitor. A discharge tube filled with noble or inert gas is used as a flash tube, the gas pressure being below atmospheric pressure in the conventional manner. When a triggering pulse is applied to the trigger electrode, this flash tube will fire with full voltage of, for example, 500 volts at the storage capacitor; however, with reduction of the voltage a condition would be reached in which triggering of the flash tube is no longer possible.
In the prior art circuit, ionization of the gas within the flash tube is caused by the discharge from the auxiliary capacitor which has been charged to high voltage, so that subsequently the discharge of the storage capacitor will take place even with reduced voltage across the storage capacitor.
Flash tubes filled with noble or inert gas are used in prior art electronic flashlight apparatus, the gas pressure in these tubes being notably below atmospheric pressure and the tubes being triggered by means of the trigger electrode at storage capacitor voltages in the order of 500 volts.